


Agate and Onyx

by angsty_nerd



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Gen, Healing Crystals, Maria DeLuca Healing Crystals Celebration, Maria missed Rosa a LOT, angsty angst, good mother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:42:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29248977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angsty_nerd/pseuds/angsty_nerd
Summary: How do you cope when your best friend unexpectedly comes back from the dead?A little ficlet for the Maria Healing Crystals Celebration.
Comments: 19
Kudos: 12
Collections: Maria DeLuca Healing Crystals Celebration





	Agate and Onyx

Maria could barely breathe.

She could still feel that surge of adrenaline from the fear that drove her to grab her taser from under the cash register; that moment of panic where she was certain that she needed to protect her life from the criminal hiding in her store room.

It only intensified when instead of some vagrant the thief wore the face of her dead best friend--a face she hadn't seen in a decade and shouldn't have ever seen again.

But it _was her._

Rosa slurred and rambled her way through a story that sounded more like science fiction than fact. A story that seemed way too much like her mom's crazy ramblings. If it was anyone else, she would accuse them of cruelty...of using her mother's illness against her, manipulating her.

But it was Rosa. _Rosa_. 

Rosa, who she had shared her first joint with when she was 15 years old. Rosa, who had convinced her to cut class for the first time her freshman year, so they could sneak out into the desert and explore an abandoned mineshaft together.

Rosa, whose grave she visited every month, cleaning the graffiti off, and leaving trinkets and flowers for her friend. Rosa who she had spent a decade grieving and missing and telling years of unheard stories of her life to.

As Rosa stumbled through her impossible story, she coaxed Maria out of the corner she was cowering in. Once she was upright and steady again, Rosa threw herself in Maria's arms. Maria held her close, smelling the old familiar scent of desert rose and spice with a twist of tequila that had always defined Rosa. A decade of the absence of it had lulled Maria into forgetting how visceral it was. There was something new there...a slightly acrid scent, like an electrical fire. Maria filed that thought away to consider later 

Now though...now she needed to sit down. And so did Rosa, who was leaning a bit too heavily against her. Maria took Rosa by the hand and led her around the bar. As she passed the register, she returned the taser to its hiding place, and grabbed the small pouch stashed beside it. 

Maria slid into a large booth, pulling Rosa in beside her. Rosa ditched the baseball cap and enormous hoodie that she was drowning. Without them she seemed tiny, fragile. Rosa lay down, resting her head in Maria's lap. Gently, Maria combed her hands through Rosa's hair, murmuring soothingly to her.

"Rest now," she told her. "You need to sober up. I've got you, now. You're safe."

It didn't take long before Rosa had drifted off to sleep. Only then, Maria felt like she could allow herself to try to process all of this madness. A part of her wanted to surrender to the anger. She wanted to let it burn through her. To scream and cry and yell at her friends.

A panic suddenly rose in her gut and she felt breathless, panicked. 

Aliens were real. Max Evans brought Rosa back from the dead, because that was something he could just do. He could heal with his hands, just like that fraud Arizona that they went to see in Texas pretended she could. Liz and Alex knew. Michael knew. Even Kyle friggin' Valenti knew. And yet, no one considered that maybe he could have helped her mom. And they all knew that she was actively looking for a miracle.

Max could have done it. He could have helped her mother. 

But instead he killed himself bringing Rosa back from the dead.

Maria wiped angrily at her face. 

She was utterly furious, but she had no idea at who. At herself, for crying over the betrayal? At Liz, who should have understood why Maria needed to know? At Michael, for pretending like he cared about her, for sleeping with her, and kissing her, and claiming to be supporting her, when he was really lying the whole time. 

Gasping for breath, she grabbed the little pouch and dumped the contents out onto the table in front of her. A half dozen stones of various shapes and sizes spread out before her. Maria gathered them into a pile, sorting them, and trying to focus her energy instead on what she could do to help herself. And Rosa. 

Opal for creativity. Not what either of them needed right now. Quartz, on the other hand, to combat anxiety, stress, frustration...she slid the quartz stone to the side. Definitely something she needed. 

Rosa mumbled incoherently and shifted her head slightly away from Maria. She looked down at her sleeping friend, shaking her head sadly. Rosa needed agate to detoxify. 

She hesitated for a moment, studying the stones, and her finger slid to the purple stone, the amethyst. After a decade in the darkness, Rosa deserved some positive energy. Maybe the amethyst would ease her mind while sleeping.

Finally, her eyes fell on the jet black stone. Onyx. To absorb the negative energy coursing through her body, mind, and spirit after Rosa's revelations. Maria nodded to herself. She deserved this anger after all of the lies, but she hated wallowing in negativity. 

The other stones she returned to the pouch.

It was easy enough to slide the agate and amethyst into the pocket of Rosa's jeans. 

For herself, Maria held the quartz crystal in her hands for a long time, staring at it, focusing her energy on it, trying desperately to call to its healing properties. After a while, she slipped the quartz into her bra. She felt it resting there, against the bare skin of her chest. She took a few long, steady breaths, feeling the weight of the quartz balanced against her skin, raising and lowering with each breath in and each release of air from her lungs.

The onyx she left on the table in front of her. As she breathed in and out, slow meditative breaths, she focused her attention on the onyx. On the smooth, shiny blackness of the stone. She tried to push her anger at the stone. She tried to take the bitterness and betrayal, all of the negative energy that had been building up inside of her, and channel it into the contours of the stone. 

Maria believed in the healing properties of the minerals, but she knew it wasn't a cure all. Particularly for the current situation that she found herself in. But they gave her something to focus on, something to break the spiral of negative energy that she knew would result from letting her mind roam free.

It almost worked too. She was almost feeling better, when the Pony door swung open and Michael came rushing in. 

"You okay, DeLuca? I was going to give you space to be with your mom, but there's something I need to tell you."

At the sound of his voice, all of the bitterness came rushing back, and just like that, any hope of self healing was gone. Angry, eyes stinging from tears, Maria pushed herself to her feet.

"Is there?"

  
  



End file.
